video
Fidelity and Constraint: How the Supreme Court Has Read the American Constitution
HLS Library Book Talk
On September 25, Harvard Law School Professor discussed his book "Fidelity & Constraint: How the Supreme Court Has Read the American Constitution, as part of an ongoing series of talks sponsored by the Harvard Law School Library. In his talk, Lessig explains that one of the most basic approaches to interpreting the constitution is the process of translation. Indeed, some of the most significant shifts in constitutional doctrine are products of the evolution of the translation process over time. In every new era, judges understand their translations as instances of “interpretive fidelity,” framed within each new temporal context.